If we follow Jesus in our life and let Him change us, all circumstances in our life will serve for good to us. Those who trust God will never be ashamed
Peace and mercy from our Lord, Jesus Christ be multiplied in your life today! I pray for you, so that God´s word impregnates and strengthens you in your spirit, body and soul.
We continue to discuss God´s philosophy of changes. God seeks people whose hearts are full of faith, those who do not question the abilities and wisdom of the Almighty God. As we pointed earlier, for God it´s more difficult to change us than the circumstances around. Once we begin to change, so do the circumstances.
Today, when we look at the church, we may observe a disappointing situation: people attend the church just as a matter of habit. Reading the Bible has become a habit, also praying and listening to different sermons. There is nothing wrong with it, not at all. Meanwhile, all those good habits do not change the way of life for the majority of christians. People keep on living as they lived before, sometimes even worse. People continue to do things they used to do. While the God expects changes in our lives. Why did God save us? Why did He call us? Why do we attend our church?
Consider these questions! What has changed in your life of a christian during the last two years? Ask yourself this question seriously! Slow down before saying that changes are taking place in your life! Make a list of what exactly has changed in your life! Changes if those have really happened must be apparent and certain. As a christian who attends church, reads the Bible, prays and listens to outstanding teachings and sermons how have you been changed for the last 5 years?
What has changed in your character? What has changed in your way of thinking and the way your treat other people? In what way have you become more like Jesus Christ?
Changes is a measurement of your spiritual growth, something that God calls us to do. He wants us to be constantly changing and never resisting to changes even when the circumstances around us worsen. Such circumstances often lead people away from the Kingdom of Heaven, because people rather seek comfort than strong character or the right attitude to life.
Any hunter realises that choosing the right target during the hunt is vitally important. The same way God picks up a certain sphere of your life that needs changes. It´s often the sphere of life that has stayed intact for years, sphere where we feel ourselves comfortable. Then God suddenly comes and crashes it. For example, He can remove or just distance things we trust and rely upon in our life, things that prevent us from relying on God. Those might be people, money, goods, work, etc. Doing so God teaches us to lean only on Him.
The biblical stories about prophet Elijah whom God was feeding during the drought, illustrate how God often teaches His children to lean on Him alone instead of any other sources of life.
«Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the foreigners of Gilead, said to Ahab, As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. The word of Yahweh came to him, saying, Get you hence, and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. It shall be, that you shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. So he went and did according to the word of Yahweh; for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. It happened after a while, that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. The word of Yahweh came to him, saying, Arise, get you to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.». (1st Kings 17:1-9).
In this story we can see how God showed to Elijah that God himself is the source of life, not the brook Elijah drank from, nor the raven that brought food to him. God desired to teach Elijah to rely on God only. When the brook Elijah used to drink from had dried up, God prepared a different source of life for him.
If we follow Jesus in our life and let Him change us, all circumstances in our life will serve for good to us. Those who trust God will never be ashamed.
Be abundantly blessed!
Rufus Adjiboje, pastor
